Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell told lawmakers on Tuesday that the central bank remains focused on making sure any one-time increases in prices from higher tariffs won’t turn into an “ongoing inflation problem.

Trump is urging the Fed to cut rates to save the U.S. government money on its interest payments affixed to the vast national debt. Yet the Fed has long resisted considering the government’s financing costs when making interest rate decisions, preferring instead to focus on the health of the economy and inflation.

The Fed chair told lawmakers that the central bank could afford to be patient amid uncertainty about how President Trump’s policies would affect the economy, even as divisions between officials emerged.